"He that hath a trade hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath a place of profit and honor" - Benjamin Franklin

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Government Jobs

When I was making the fender braces for the sidecar the other day, I needed to splice a piece of tubing. I had a fixture I made for that at the high school but I left it behind when I retired. After struggling a bit the other day, I decided I needed to make another one for home. I got lucky in that I found some short pieces of angle that was just what I was looking for at the college shop. Later in the day I was doing my lab tech gig and I was able to get on a mill and do my machine work and then weld it up later that day in the weld shop.

Two pieces of 2x2x1/4 angle 12" long with a flat milled on the points to keep the clamps from slipping off. Four pieces of 3/8 flat to separate the angles so you can get the clamps in there. After it's all welded up, cut a slot in the middle so you can weld all around your pieces while they're clamped in the fixture. Not much to it but it works pretty slick.

I finish welded TVI's golf cart dash on company time as well. Looks pretty good, he said it should work. It's his now.

Also got started on the sidecar fender. This one I'll have to do at home. I did take the sheet to work and trim cut it, however. I was going to weld the fender braces on but I got to thinking that it would be a real pain in the arse taking the wheel off if it had to come out the bottom. I'm going to make some brackets up so I can bolt the braces onto the frame and make a piece to connect the two braces at the top.

I started shaping the fender. I'm telling you it's a real leap of faith to take a nice, shiny, flat piece of aluminum and start wacking it with with a wooden mallet over a shot bag and expect it to come out like you envisioned it. So far it's looking like I might get there but I've still got a long way to go. I need to get the braces in place so I can get an accurate measurement of the radius before I can finish the shaping but it's close. I'll draw a layout and then use the shrinker to bring it in to the line so I get a nice even curve. At least that's the plan.